By Clement Harrold

September 3, 2026

Apostolic succession is the idea that Christ’s apostles appointed successor bishops who in turn appointed successor bishops of their own—all the way down to the present day.

These successors to the apostles are responsible for both the governance of the Church and the preservation of the sacraments.  

A significant majority of the world’s Christians, including all of the world’s Catholics and Orthodox, accept apostolic succession. Nevertheless, many Protestant Christians reject the doctrine as both unnecessary and unbiblical.

A major problem with this Protestant perspective is that none of the earliest Christians agreed with it.  

In fact, when we survey the writings of the early Church Fathers, it’s striking to see how not a single one of them rejected apostolic succession, and nearly all of them explicitly endorsed it. 

 

Apostolic Fathers

Apostolic Fathers refers to the first generation of the most influential Christian theologians, writers, and bishops.

They lived in the late first and early second centuries, and they are called “apostolic” because they either personally knew the Twelve Apostles, or else they were heavily influenced by them.

St. Clement of Rome (c. 35 - c. 99)

Clement is usually recognized as the fourth pope of Rome (following Peter, Linus, and Cletus), although some lists place him as the second or third. His connection to the apostles is corroborated by St. Irenaeus, who writes in the second century:

The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate. Of this Linus, Paul makes mention in the Epistles to Timothy. To him succeeded Anacletus; and after him, in the third place from the apostles, Clement was allotted the bishopric. This man, as he had seen the blessed apostles, and had been conversant with them, might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing [in his ears], and their traditions before his eyes. Nor was he alone [in this], for there were many still remaining who had received instructions from the apostles. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.3.3)

Tertullian also highlights Clement’s proximity to the apostles, including how he received ordination from St. Peter himself:

For this is the manner in which the apostolic churches transmit their registers: as the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter. (Tertullian, Prescription Against Heretics, 32)

Clement is even mentioned in passing by St. Paul in Philippians 4:3, and he is best known for having authored a famous letter to the church in Corinth. The traditional dating for this letter is around AD 96, but a growing number of both Catholic and Protestant scholars now think it may have been written before AD 70.  

In his letter, Clement clearly affirms the reality of apostolic succession:

Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry. (Clement, Letter to the Corinthians, 44) 

St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 33 - c. 108)

St. Ignatius was the Patriarch of Antioch, and we possess several remarkable letters that he wrote en route to his martyrdom in Rome.

His nickname Theophorus means “the God-bearer,” and today his relics rest beneath the high altar of the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome.  

One of Ignatius’s seven surviving letters was written to Polycarp, whom, as we’ll see, was acquainted with the apostles. Indeed, in his own Epistle to the Philippians, Polycarp himself confirms that he received correspondence from Ignatius.

Some centuries later, in his Homily on St. Ignatius, St. John Chrysostom claims that the apostles both conversed with and laid hands upon Ignatius. Similarly, Theodoret of Cyrrhus notes in passing that Ignatius was ordained by none other than St. Peter (see Dialogues on the Immutability of God, I).

There is another tradition transcribed in a work known as The Martyrdom of Ignatius, which says that Ignatius was the child whom Jesus takes in His arms in the Gospels. The same work also claims that Ignatius, together with Polycarp, was a disciple of St. John the Apostle.

When we turn to Ignatius’s own writings, his belief in apostolic succession is abundantly clear:

See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. (Ignatius, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, 8)

Since therefore I have, in the persons before mentioned, beheld the whole multitude of you in faith and love, I exhort you to study to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. (Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians, 6)

As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, neither by Himself nor by the apostles, so neither do anything without the bishop and presbyters. (Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians, 7) 

St. Polycarp (c. 69 - c. 155)

Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna, and the story of his death is the earliest account of Christian martyrdom outside of the New Testament.

At the age of 86, he was burned at a stake before being stabbed with a dagger when the flames failed to consume him.  

We have already quoted from Tertullian, who observes that Polycarp was appointed bishop by St. John the Apostle, just as Clement was ordained by St. Peter.

In his Ecclesiastical History, written around AD 315, Eusebius records a letter from St. Irenaeus to a man named Florinus, which describes how when Irenaeus was a boy he met Polycarp and heard about his interactions with the apostles:

For when I [Irenaeus] was a boy, I saw you [Florinus] in lower Asia with Polycarp, moving in splendor in the royal court, and endeavoring to gain his approbation. I remember the events of that time more clearly than those of recent years. For what boys learn, growing with their mind, becomes joined with it; so that I am able to describe the very place in which the blessed Polycarp sat as he discoursed, and his goings out and his comings in, and the manner of his life, and his physical appearance, and his discourses to the people, and the accounts which he gave of his intercourse with John and with the others who had seen the Lord. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 5.20.5–6)

When we examine St. Irenaeus’s other extant writings, we again find him affirming that Polycarp was acquainted with the apostles.

At the same time, Irenaeus demonstrates how Polycarp is a clear witness to the truth of apostolic succession, since (a) Polycarp was appointed by the apostles, and (b) Polycarp considered it essential to pass on the traditions he had received from the apostles. Irenaeus explains:

But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic Churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time . . . He it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus caused many to turn away from the aforesaid heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles—that, namely, which is handed down by the Church. There are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.3.4)

St. Papias of Hierapolis (c. 60 - c. 130)

Papias was the bishop of Hierapolis, in modern-day Turkey.

He is known for having compiled oral stories about Jesus and the apostles, although his original five-volume work has been lost.  

When St. Irenaeus mentions Papias, he identifies him as “the hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp” (Against Heresies, 5.33.4).

Fragments of Papias’s writings are preserved by other ancient authors including Eusebius. In these fragments, Papias appears to say that he conversed with the original apostles while at the same time eagerly gathering sayings that had been attributed to them (see Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 3.39).  

While Papias does not explicitly affirm apostolic succession, his emphasis on oral tradition and on the teachings of the apostles fits much better with a Catholic or Orthodox ecclesiology than with a Protestant one.

As he himself explains, “I did not think that what was to be gotten from the books would profit me as much as what came from the living and abiding voice [of the apostles].”

Second Generation Fathers

After the Apostolic Fathers, we have a new generation of theologians and bishops.

These Church Fathers lived in the second and third centuries, which means they are still extremely close to the time of Jesus and the apostles. Much like the Apostolic Fathers, these second-generation Fathers are emphatic about the truth of apostolic succession.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130 - c. 202)

Irenaeus grew up in Asia Minor where, as we’ve seen, he received mentorship from St. Polycarp, who was himself a follower of St. John the Apostle. (This makes Irenaeus a sort of spiritual grandson to the very disciple who reclined on the breast of Our Lord at the Last Supper!)

Irenaeus later traveled to Rome, before finally ending up in Lyons, France, where he became bishop.

In his writings, Irenaeus strongly affirms the reality of apostolic succession:

It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.3.1)

And again:  

Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.3.2)

From here Irenaeus launches into a list of all the bishops of Rome, beginning with Peter and continuing right up to his own day.

A little later on, Irenaeus again speaks of apostolic succession:

Wherefore it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church—those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But [it is also incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, [looking upon them] either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. . . . But those who cleave asunder, and separate the unity of the Church, [shall] receive from God the same punishment as Jeroboam did. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4.26.2)

St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 - c. 215)

Clement taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria, and his students included Origen.

In a powerful sermon, Clement recalls how St. John appointed successors to continue his apostolic ministry:

And that you may be still more confident, that repenting thus truly there remains for you a sure hope of salvation, listen to a tale, which is not a tale but a narrative, handed down and committed to the custody of memory, about the Apostle John. For when, on the tyrant’s death, he returned to Ephesus from the isle of Patmos, he went away, being invited, to the contiguous territories of the nations, here to appoint bishops, there to set in order whole Churches, there to ordain such as were marked out by the Spirit. (Clement of Alexandria, Who is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? 42)

Tertullian (c. 155 - c. 220)

The North African apologist Tertullian was the first theologian to write in Latin, and for this reason he has been dubbed the father of Latin Christianity.

Tertullian is unequivocal in stating that the apostles appointed successors to take their place:

But if there be any (heresies) which are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst of the apostolic age, that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [that first bishop of theirs ] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men—a man, moreover, who continued steadfast with the apostles. For this is the manner in which the apostolic churches transmit their registers: as the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter. In exactly the same way the other churches likewise exhibit (their several worthies), whom, as having been appointed to their episcopal places by apostles, they regard as transmitters of the apostolic seed. Let the heretics contrive something of the same kind. (Tertullian, Prescription Against Heretics, 32)

Origen (c. 185 - c. 253)

Origen of Alexandria is another extremely early figure who became probably the single most influential Scriptural commentator in the history of Christianity.

His preface to On First Principles is utterly devastating for more Protestant ecclesiologies and to the assumptions of Sola scriptura more generally:

Since many, however, of those who profess to believe in Christ differ from each other, not only in small and trifling matters, but also on subjects of the highest importance, as, e.g., regarding God, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit; and not only regarding these, but also regarding others which are created existences, viz., the powers and the holy virtues; it seems on that account necessary first of all to fix a definite limit and to lay down an unmistakable rule regarding each one of these, and then to pass to the investigation of other points. For as we ceased to seek for truth (notwithstanding the professions of many among Greeks and Barbarians to make it known) among all who claimed it for erroneous opinions, after we had come to believe that Christ was the Son of God, and were persuaded that we must learn it from Himself; so, seeing there are many who think they hold the opinions of Christ, and yet some of these think differently from their predecessors, yet as the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the apostles, and remaining in the Churches to the present day, is still preserved, that alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition. (Origen, On First Principles, Preface)

St. Cyprian of Carthage (c. 210 - c. 258)

Last but not least, we have St. Cyprian, who was a bishop of Carthage.

In one of his letters, Cyprian offers a resounding endorsement of apostolic succession while commenting on a dispute between different factions in the early Church:

Wherefore, since the Church alone has the living water, and the power of baptizing and cleansing man, he who says that any one can be baptized and sanctified by Novatian must first show and teach that Novatian is in the Church or presides over the Church. For the Church is one, and as she is one, cannot be both within and without. For if she is with Novatian, she was not with Cornelius. But if she was with Cornelius, who succeeded the bishop Fabian by lawful ordination, and whom, beside the honour of the priesthood, the Lord glorified also with martyrdom, Novatian is not in the Church; nor can he be reckoned as a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the evangelical and apostolic tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not been ordained in the Church can neither have nor hold to the Church in any way. (Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 75, 3) 

Further reading:

The Bible and the Church Fathers

Revisiting the Scriptural Foundations of the Papacy

Mike Aquilina, Faith of Our Fathers: Why the Early Christians Still Matter and Always Will (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2012)